The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) and partner organizations sent letters to the South Carolina House Redistricting Ad Hoc Committee and Senate Judiciary Redistricting Subcommittee to reiterate concerns with the Subcommittees’ failure to provide transparency during the ongoing redistricting cycle. On August 2, 2021, LDF sent a letter with recommendations for public involvement in all stages of the redistricting process, emphasizing that the public must have an opportunity to respond to proposed maps before any such maps are finalized or approved. Today’s follow-up letters were sent to express concern about lawmakers’ failure to provide updates, and request more information about redistricting plans.
LDF requests responses to the following:
1. When does the Senate intend to return to session to consider redistricting plans?2
2. Consistent with this Subcommittee’s goal that the “public shall be provided accurate and complete information about redistricting plans introduced in the Senate, whether by House or Senate bill and on public record with the Redistricting Subcommittee,” when does this Subcommittee intend to share proposed maps with the public?
3. We appreciate this Subcommittee’s decision to create a deadline and portal for the public to submit redistricting plans. Accordingly, during what timeframe does this Subcommittee intend to consider such maps?
4. Does this Subcommittee intend to hold public hearings in which testimony and public comment can be provided on maps proposed by this Subcommittee and maps proposed by members of the public, before such maps are finalized or approved by the Subcommittee?
5. What is the Senate’s timeline for considering and approving redistricting plans?
6. What steps, if any, has the Senate taken to ensure that its timeline for considering and approving maps will be sufficient to allow any itigation that may be filed to be fully resolved before the March 16, 2022, candidate filing deadline for the 2022 partisan primaries?
Read the full letter here and here
Read the August 2 letters here.
Ahead of the 2021 redistricting cycle, LDF, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, and MALDEF released Power on the Line(s): Making Redistricting Work for Us, a guide for community partners and policy makers who intend to engage in the redistricting process at all levels of government. The guide provides essential information about the redistricting process, such as examples of recent efforts to dilute the voting power of communities of color and considerations for avoiding such dilution. Read the guide here.
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Follow LDF on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
